Introduction to Soft Matter: Synthetic and Biological Self-Assembling Materials

The book by Ian Hamley presents an excellent introduction to the physical chemistry of soft matter. A wide range of examples are given. It can be read by a complete novice in the area, to provide a bridge to more advanced research literature. It is much simpler than the book by Richard Jones, which could be read once the contents of Hamley's text have been properly digested (followed by the books of Lubensky or Kleman if the reader wants a strong background in theoretical soft matter physics).

I'm not exactly sure what to say, other than I was really disappointed by the overall presentation of material in this book. It wasn't absolutely terrible, but I am of the firm belief that someone could do a much better job presenting the material here. I bought the Kindle version and didn't like the way the text and figures were formatted together. I looked at a hard copy of the text and thought it was easier to go through than the kindle edition.

A truly mediocre to simply bad textbook. The book lacks the clarity necessary for the depth of topic that it is attempting to summarize and teach. If it's a textbook needed for a course, there is nothing you can do, but I wish you luck with it.An unhelpful resource.

Really nice book with a lot of interesting applications. It's a really good overview of a large field of research.